Audio By Carbonatix
The difficulty in writing a play about another culture and people far, far away is bringing the characters to life. So it comes as no surprise that City-Stage Ensemble’s production of Dan Hiester’s new play, Family Gatherings, a thinly disguised defense of the Palestine Liberation Organization, is a bad trip. In fact, it’s a confused hodgepodge of good intentions peopled with stock characters: the Lovers, the Parents, the Disillusioned Leader, the Mother, the Angry Father, the Emerging Feminist. A largely amateur cast doesn’t help, either.
The story revolves around the last days of the fictional Galiman nation. The program notes inform us that a tiny Muslim domain, established in 1911 as a social experiment, has been invaded and swallowed up by the nearby Hadaka tribes. Because the small nation adheres to cultural norms abhorrent to Western nations (notably the repression of women), the world ignores the plight of the Galimani, who are witnessing the obliteration of every last vestige of their history.
As the play opens, the Galimani have been driven to the point of extinction. A small group of rebels has embraced terrorism in defense of its culture and homeland. The group is about to make its last stand against the IAD (International Assistance Defense) and the Hadaka. As explained in the program, Hiester is really writing about what he describes as a massacre of PLO troops committed in 1982 by the Israeli-supplied Christian militia. Hiester never explains why his characters believe terrorism will win them the approval of the world. Instead, he offers us a view of desperation uninformed by wisdom of any kind. We repeatedly are instructed that one of the women has bombed a school full of Hadaka children, and also that the Hadaka are killing Galimani children, not to mention women and men. We are asked to take sides against an enemy we know absolutely nothing about.
Between the angry diatribes against the Hadaka, Hiester introduces a lengthy discussion about the oppression of Galimani women. An argument among the characters about forthcoming changes in the women’s status is not for an instant believable. And while we are meant to be incensed by the wanton destruction of human life described in the play, none of the characters are developed well enough to push the outrage button. What does Hiester wish us to come away with? The idea that blowing up schools full of children is justified because war turns us all into monsters? That “keep hate alive” is a righteous point of view?
And then there is the problem of the performances. Only two actors manage to create real characters. Greg Ward as the angry Basam gives a feisty, lively performance–except that he has to spend most of the second act “unconscious” on the floor. As the quiet Haile, Carlton Bacon has too few lines and too little scope for his talents. Michael S. Robinson has presence as the soulful Saul, but his character is so nondescript that he has trouble bringing it to life. The women, meanwhile, spend their time whining, ranting and gesticulating. The remainder of the cast acts out its anger with more volume than real insight.
You have to give Hiester credit for trying–his attempts to stir compassion and indignation over the issue of genocide, which continues to rage in pockets around the globe, are commendable. In that sense, Family Gatherings is at least a brave failure.